COVID-19 BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING PULSE – MAY 2021

Customer Colleagues,

At Syneos Health, our priorities in 2021 continue to be protecting health and safety, while partnering with our customers, sponsors and investigators to deliver life-saving medicines to patients worldwide. As part of our commitment to continuous communication, following our initial Business Continuity Planning (BCP) update and weekly editions throughout the majority of 2020, we’re now issuing a monthly BCP PULSE to keep you aware of our efforts. 

CARE AND COMPASSION FOR OUR GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Over this past year, together we’ve navigated COVID-19, with the health and safety of employees, patients and partners being our primary concern. A reality of this virus is that it’s impacting the world unevenly, with some markets beginning to open and some markets now suffering.

We have most recently been watching with sadness the devastating impacts of the new COVID-19 spike in India. The dire situation in India is a reminder that, despite incredible progress in both vaccinations and treatments, this terrible pandemic is not yet over.

We are actively supporting our colleagues in India and their families during this crisis. This includes our Transition Management Office (TMO) partnering with local teams, focused on the following:

• Continuing to place the safety of our India colleagues and their families first, including flexibility with their work schedules and through Employee Assistance Programs.
• Exploring leave and recovery policies, and how we can best support vaccinations.
• Evaluating additional PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), and aid being deployed from other countries. Our own medical teams and our Ventilator Task Force are actively seeking to do all we can to rapidly address the situation at the country level.

The pandemic makes clear the importance of our purpose to deliver life-changing medicines to patients every day. We will continue to connect our global community with care and compassion.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING REACTIVATION SUMMARY

Our Business Continuity Planning Transition Management Office (TMO), in alignment with FDA, CDC, WHO and other local and international health authority guidance, includes multiple workstreams. In each BCP PULSE, we’re including select workstream updates to keep you aware of our learnings and efforts.

• Regulatory Guidance: Aggregating and synthesizing EMA and FDA guidance, and updating regulations and restrictions in order to provide direction to our employees and customers on when – or when not – to pivot and/or reactivate.
• Change Management: Working internally and with customers on change management activities to ensure preparedness as dynamics shift.
• Field Team Connections: Monitoring field challenges and team resilience, compiling best practices for remote activities and HCP preferences, and benchmarking remote versus in-person detailing metrics.
• Sponsor Connections: Working collaboratively with sponsors in the “now normal” to press forward with studies underway while initiating new trials.
• Continued Preparedness Planning: Tracking evolving trends in COVID-19 cases and emerging variants, as well as vaccination rollout progress, to develop scenario plans and share best-practice learnings.

BEST PRACTICES – BEING AGILE TO ADAPT TO OUR EVOLVED ENVIRONMENT

Working hand in hand with hundreds of companies – and our 25,000 employees worldwide – we’re designing integrated lab to life solutions every day. Each challenge presents the opportunity to apply key learnings to build better approaches and resiliency.

• Syneos Health Vaccines Center of Excellence – Helping Companies Keep Pace with Market Dynamics: Syneos Health brings together clinical and commercial minds to power a vaccines solution that helps manufacturers deal with an ever-changing landscape. From how to function in a post-EUA environment, to considerations around COVID-19 vaccine boosters, to protecting share during blackout periods, our consulting, policy and public health experts are ready to help solve today’s complex challenges. If you’d like to speak with one of our vaccines experts, please contact us.

REAL-TIME RESOURCES

We’re regularly updating our COVID-19 Resource Center with capabilities and perspectives to navigate, deliver and learn together. We are looking to exchange your learnings and experiences, too.  Should you have ideas, comments or concerns, please contact us.

Thank you for your partnership.